Insight Volume 30, Issue 2 June 2011 Continuing Articles across Pages Type your sub-heading here Your By-line Your Company Name This document was created using linked text boxes, which allow articles to flow continuously across pages. For example, this article continues on page two, while the one to the right continues on page three. When you God s Beautiful Handy Work, The Great Smoky Mountains. By Roger During the first week of April, the students of our school with Sam and Roger were guests of Ed and Virginia Stucky, the owners of Top of Townsend Little Mountain Hideaway. Ed and Virginia graciously gave us use of one of their rental cabins for a week s retreat in the Smoky Mountains. On the way to Tennessee, we stopped at the Cumberland Gap where we imagined the tough pioneers who made the difficult journey through the mountains to gain homes in Kentucky. I NSIDE T HIS I SSUE continued on page 2 From The Director s Desk Praying for You: I Thank my God, making mention of you always, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledge of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. Philemon 4-7 The staff and students of Operation Rebirth know that you are praying for us, we can see it in the changed lives of ourselves and our boys. But did you know that we pray for you? Every note that we write to our faithful donors, every thankyou, and every letter we send out is accompanied by prayer. And, every family that sends us a Christmas card is added to our prayer list; we pray for one of you each week! Do you have a special request for prayer? Drop us a note and we will promise to pray for you. Your prayers have made a difference in our lives and we hope that you see the results of our prayers in your lives! As I was reviewing last year s needs list, I was amazed at how the Lord has provided for Operation Rebirth over the last several months. Operation Rebirth has seen some very practical answers to our prayers: OR needed a new chimney, in the dorm and God provided. OR needed to fix our drainage problem and God providedright before all the rain started! OR needed to update the lighting in the school and God provided, and provided our friends Jerry and Ed to install it! OR needed new push mowers, and God provided through our friends Steve and Kim! 1 God s Beautiful Handy Work 1 From the Director s Desk 2 Paul s Quest God answers prayers; thank you for praying for us and we promise to keep praying for you. Sam Ronicker 2 Family Camp 4 Message from the Founder Newsletter 1
continued from page 1 Our cabin was near Cades Cove in the National Park. We went to the cove several times, exploring the old mill, cabins, and church buildings. We learned some of the history of this very interesting part of the Mountains. Abram s Falls and a pasture furnished several pleasant hours for hiking, relaxing, and making water wheels at the creek. Mac Proffit of Smoky Mountain Woodcarvers in Townsend spent some time with the guys, teaching them some carving techniques and giving each of them a gift. The fellows enjoyed the time with him. We made excursions about the Park, going to the Cherokee Museum, Clingman s Dome, Newfound Gap, and Chimney Tops. The entire group made the hike to Chimney Tops, but a couple of us did not make the climb to the pinnacle. We are thankful that we could provide this experience for the students at Operation Rebirth. Psalms 33:4-6 (NASB) 4 For the word of the Lord is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord. 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. From the Founder s Desk by Jim Brian Mom will kill me if she ever finds out and he began to cry uncontrollably. She s the only person who really loves me and I have hurt her in the worse way. I asked a few questions and the 14-year-old Operation Rebirth student finally opened up. My four younger [half] brothers and sisters get all of Mom s attention. My sister s been sick since birth. Mom doesn t have any time left for me. My real dad never has any time for me either. He doesn t like me to look at bad things on my computer, but he does. If there is a God, I hate him. Finally, he confessed that he hated his little sister and had prayed that she would die and she did. If there is a God, I know He will send me to hell. I talked with this young man on several occasions about God s grace. I told him that God loved him very much, even when he prayed that his sister would die, even when he feasted on pornography. I explained that God wanted to give him a new life and to help him with his struggles if he would only trust Him. Now, many years later, this young man is a great husband and father. He is living a life of faith in the Christ who purchased for him the forgiveness that we all must have in order to face the problems common to all men. He now has an exciting hope as God s redeemed child. Thank you for being the key part of so many confused, hurting families that have come to Operation Rebirth and fond the answer in Jesus Christ and His plan. Your prayers and gifts have made it possible for young men and families to that for over 36 years has opened the hearts of hundreds of boys and continues to do so. Please pray about giving a generous gift that Christ might use to bring new life to boys families, for His glory. Family Camp 2011 For well over two decades an important part of the Operation Rebirth experience for youth and families has been their participation in the fellowship, learning, and relationship building which takes place at Family Camp. Parent are able to come together in and informal relaxed atmosphere to share stories and offer support, as well as come to personally know the staff and volunteers that work with their sons. It is an opportunity to actively engage in the ministry. O.R. was once again hosted at the Higher Ground near Kiser Lake State Park. Staff and volunteers assisted with crafts, games, archery and fishing. Families were able to spend the weekend in cabins on sight and enjoy the nature hikes and fellowship together on Mother Day at the St. Paris Church of God. Although it was a rainy and wet weekend the campers still managed to toast marshmallows in the large fireplace at the lodge for smores. This year OR family therapist Steve Karnehm engaged parents in dialog regarding the effects of personality traits in familial relationships. Director Sam Ronicker and residential parents Dan & Beth Recker met with each family and youth individually to discuss a new parenting tool, the OR action plans which will guide the parents, child, and staff as a team to work toward their personal goals. As always the focus at or is to teach respect, responsibility, and positive relationships. O.R. hopes to continue to use the valuable teaching moments created by the time invested in coming together in a camp atmosphere at future family camps. Families are invited to share suggestions for how to continue to improve this service. Newsletter 2
N EEDS L IST Hay to put up for next winter. Firewood for next winter. Commercial grade dishwasher. Water Softener Salt We Need you!!! C ALENDAR OF E VENTS The styles available in this template allow you to DAD S WEEKEND SPRINGFIELD CHURCH OF GOD CAMPGROUND DATES: JUNE 3 RD, 4 TH, & 5TH Men building Relationships MILTON S HORSE FARM LEBANON, OHIO JUNE 30 & JULY 1 Experience Horse Farm END OF SCHOOL YEAR JULY 22 Great job to the staff SUMMER BREAK JULY 23- AUG. 3 Family Time Save the Date: OPERATION REBIRTH SHARING BANQUET TROY HIGH SCHOOL DATES: OCT.24, 2011 AT 6:00 PM Featuring the special music of Eric Weiss OPERATION REBIRTH FOUNDER S DAY/APPLE BUTTER DAY 1638 APPLE RD., SAINT PARIS, OH OCTOBER 28, 2011 WEATHER PERMITTING ALL Are Welcome, Old and new friends of the ministry ENCOURAGED!!! OPERATION REBIRTH GOLF TOURNAMENT COMING SOON Jason Bowman, Where in the World are you? I have great memories from last summer at Operation Rebirth, where I did my psychology practicum class for Wright State University. It was great working with the staff and students here, and helping out wherever I could. It was a great learning experience that I ll never forget! Since that time, I ve been able to experience many other opportunities. One of those is recently starting a job in Cincinnati at St. Joseph Orphanage. It is a mental health treatment center for children and adolescents with severe mental, emotional, and behavior disorders and illnesses. My job position is a mental health /education intervention specialist, where I will be assisting a teacher in one of the classes. My time at Operation Rebirth has thoroughly prepared me for this job, as they are similar in many ways. I ve also been accepted into graduate school at Wright State University s clinical mental health counseling program. In addition to that, I recently got engaged, and will be marry my fiancé, Ashleigh Nunamaker, this July! God has been doing some wonderful things in my life, and I can t wait to see what the future holds! I will continue to keep Operation Rebirth s staff and students in my prayers. Jason Newsletter 3
Paul s Quest Results I was able to complete 155 official miles. Although this was short of my goal of 160 miles, I achieved my secondary goal of doing better than my previous Calvin's Challenge, even if it was only 1 mile more. After I finished the 3rd, 51 mile lap, I still had about 10 minutes of official time left, and was able to get to the 2 mile mark before time ran out. Then I had to ride 2 miles back to the school, so even though those 2 miles don't count for Clavin s Challenge, I actually finished the day riding 157 miles, and was on the bike for a total of 11 hours. One of Calvin's rules is "No Whining Allowed," and this is not intended to be whining, but there were killer "characterbuilding" headwinds in the 15-20 mph range through the first half of the 2nd and 3rd laps that dropped my average speed below what I knew I had to sustain to make 160 miles. But, like another Paul, I feel that I can say that I "ran the race" with all that I had, because I kept telling myself that I was riding for something more important than myself. Your support of Operation Rebirth through my efforts is deeply appreciated, as were your prayers of support, which I knew were there. Thank you to all. But, like another Paul I feel that I can say that I ran the race with all that I had, because I kept telling myself that I was riding for something more important than myself. Your support of Operation Rebirth through my efforts is deeply appreciated, as were your prayers of support which I knew were there. Thank you to all, Paul Sullenberger Operation Rebirth Board of Directors One of Clavin s rules is. No whining allowed, and this is not intended to be whining but there were killer character building headwinds in the 15-20 mph range through the first half of the second and third laps that dropped my average speed below what I knew I had to maintain to reach maintain to reach 160 miles. Operation Rebirth Inc. 1638 Apple Rd. St. Paris, OH 43072 BULK RATE US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 131 ST. PARIS, OH 43072 ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED Mailing Address Street Number and Name City, State 98765-4321 Newsletter 4
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